Maiden Bradley Priory, Wiltshire, and Kidderminster Church, Worcester Shire
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MAIDEN BRADLEY PRIORY, WILTSHIRE, AND KIDDERMINSTER CHURCH, WORCESTER SHIRE Brian Kemp Let all who arc, and are to come, know that I .... have conceded and given in perpetual alms to the leper women of Bradley the churches of my manors .... ,that is, the church of Rockbourne .... and the church of Kidderminster .... Wherefore I will and firmly order that the same leper women shall have and possess the said churches with all their appurtenances for all time. In these familiar and confident terms Manasser Biser, steward of King Henry II, set in being an association between what was to become the priory of Maiden Bradley (Wilts)<'>, of which he was the founder, and the church of Kidderminster (Worcs), one of the manors he had received from the king ¢>. Little could he have imagined, however) the difficulties which the priory was to encounter in maintaining that association in accordance with his wishes. Man of affairs though he was, and often though he must have heard talk at the king's court of the problems which religious houses experienced in their tenure of parish churches, he cannot have foreseen that the permanent establishment of Maiden Bradley's position at Kidderminster would have to wait until the fourteenth century, when the ecclesiastical world would be peopled by a range of functionaries, such as archdeacons' officials and notaries public, quite foreign to his own experience. In fact, Maiden Bradley's tenure of the church of Kidderminster W,IS fraught with difficulties almost from the start, and so complicated did it become that, when the priory's rights were finally secured in 1340, one of the community (possibly the prior) wrote or commissioned an account of the saga, which has fortunately survived. It is contained in B. L. Additional Manuscript 37503, a small and rather scrappy fourteenth-century cartulary of the priory relating mainly to it s Kidderminster possessions. Under the title Processus ecclesie de Kyderm (ills tre), and occupying 26 V2 folios<J >, the account consists of transcripts of a variety of deeds and legal instruments ranging in date from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries and connected by a continuing narrative. It sets out the story as seen from the priory's point of view, along with the texts of documents which at success ive stages supported the priory's case. In general, these documentary texts are full transcripts of the originals, most of which are now 1051<4>, but the recording of witnesses is very uneven, for , although occasionally the witness list appears complete, more often it is either severely truncated or omitted altogether. In one or two cases, however, the names of the witnesses can be supplied from other surviving copies. The value and interest ofrhis record for the historian lie in its very completeness, 87 for, while most of Maiden Bradley's difficulties in holding on to Kidderminster church were not unique, and many individual documents of other houses survive to indii.:ate the vulnerability of monastic tenure of parish churches, only rarely did a religIous house suffer such a variety and succession of problems or go to the lengths of writing out the entire story. The record is instructive in other ways, too, not least in that it preserves documents of very diverse character which illustrate in context the activities of a variety of ecclesiastical officers at different dates within the period covered by the account. Although it has been used by a number of historians in the past, most extensively by the Revd. ].R. Burton in his History of Kidderminster, which appeared in 1890<5>, and although two of the episcopal acts it contains have been printed in modern times, the manuscript as a whole has never been published. It is the purpose of this essay to examine again the history of Maiden Bradley's rights in the church of Kidderminster, paying particular attention to the passages of connecting narrative between the documents, for, while most of these appear in Burton's work, the rarity of his book renders it generally inaccessible and, quite separately from that consideration, historical research since his day has so deepened our understanding of the technicalities of monastic possession of parish churches that a fresh look at this fascinating story is now called for. In general, the sequence of events and documents in the manuscript, which is basically chronological, will be adhered to in this essay, but occasionally, where the manuscript's ordering appears confused, especially with regard to developments in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, it will be necessary for clarity's sake to depart from it. The story with which we are concerned is basically this. At some time in the years 1155-8 Manasser Biset gave his church of Kidder minster to the leper house of Maiden Bradley. The gift was confirmed by, among others, Roger, bishop of Worcester, with permission to appropriate the church after the death of the incumbent rector. Appropriation was achieved in the early thirteenth century, but) for reasons which will be explained later, the priory's interest in the church was soon curtailed so I hat by 1240-1 it had lost not only the rectory but the advowson as well and retaineu nllly a portion of tithes in the parish to the value of20 marks. Even this was pOlentiJlly ulldt~r threat in the ensuing tithe dispute until re-affirmed to the priory in 120/). Between 1265 and 1276 the advowson of the rectory was restored to it, and frolll 1276 the priory exercised the advowson and continued to receive its portion in t if hl's down to the 1330s. Then began a process to recover the appropriation, which was achieved in principle in 1335 and took effect in 1340 on the death of the last rector. Although Manasser Biset's deed of gift is not the earliest charter cited in the record (since Ilenry II's confirmation in fact antedates it by a number of years), it is fitting that the manuscript deals with it firsr.The account begins: The lord Manasser Biset, founder of the house of leper women of Bradley, conveyed the church of Kidderminster to the house of Bradley 88 after the death of Robert de Hurecote, the parson, then living, by this charter. (fol. 30r) There follows the text of Manasser's charter<s>, which gives in free alms the churches of his manors of Rockbourne (Hams) and Kidderminster, with the assent and by the authority of the two respective diocesans, Henry of Winchester and Roger of Worcester, the gift in each case to take effect after the deaths of the incumbent parsons, Crispin and Robert de Hurecote, respectively. The donor, following the practice of his royal master's writing office, 'wills and firmly orders' that the leper women shall have and possess the churches freely for ever, with all appurtenances and quit of all evil customs (quiele de omnibus consuetudinibus ma/is). From the references to the bishops the charter can be dated between 23 August 1164, when Roger of Worcester was consecrated, and 8 August 1171, when Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester, died. However, Manasser had already given the churches before this time, since his gift was confirmed by Henry II in a charter which dates from the years 1155-8 and may possibly belong to the early part of 1158. The priory account reads: And the lord king of the English, Henry II, confirmed the said gift by his charter in these words, (fol. 30r) after which comes the royal confirmation<1> citing all the details contained in Manasser's charter, except that the parson of Kidder minster is called simply Robert and, more significantly perhaps, all reference to the diocesan bishops is omitted. The text lacks the list of witnesses, but their names are preserved in an enrolled inspeximus of Edward III in 1335<8> and include William, the king's brother, who died 30 January 1164, and Warin fitz Gerold the chamberlain, who held office from Michaelmas 1155 until his death some time before Michaelmas 1158<'>. The inspeximus also preserves the place date, Broolheslram in the New Forest, which, though now unidentifiable, may have been somewhere near Brockenhurst (Hants), where the king is known to have stayed and granted other charters at some time early in 1158 when Warin fitz Gerold was still alive <.0>. Between Manasser's charter and the king's confirmation, the record inserts a confirmation by Manasser's son, Henry Biset, introducing it as follows: And Henry Bisel, heir of the said Manasser, confirmed the same gift, the said parson Robert being still alive, by this charter. (fol. 30r) The text of the confirmation, which can be dated to 1187 x 1195, follows very closely that of his father's charter<ll>. Preceding this in date, but appeanng in the account after Henry II's confirmation, came the confirmation by the diocesan, Roger of Worcester, with 89 permission to appropriate. The accoum reads: Similarly, Roger bishop of Worcester confirmed that gift and conceded the said church in appropriation in this form. (fol. 30v) In the act which follows the bishop declares, after a somewhat lengthy arenga, that, at the request of Manasser Biset and Henry II, he confirms the church of Kidderminster to the leper women of Bradley, which Manasser tanquam advocalus gave and the king confirmed to them, adding that after the death of the incumbent parson, Robert, they may without contradiction convert the church in usus SUOS proprios. The text in the record lacks witnesses, but these are known from the original which, though now lost, was formerly in the College of Arms and was printed in the nineteenth century<'v.